Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday abruptly called off a planned trip to several Middle Eastern countries that had been scheduled for next week, a decision that came apparently because of the arrest of a leading Egyptian opposition politician last month.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday ordered a revision of the country's election laws and said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential elections, a scenario Mubarak hasn't faced since taking power in 1981.

[snip]

"The election of a president will be through direct, secret balloting, giving the chance for political parties to run for the presidential elections and providing guarantees that allow more than one candidate for the people to choose among them with their own will," Mubarak said in an address broadcast live on Egyptian television.

Mubarak - who has never faced an opponent since becoming president after the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat - said his initiative came "out of my full conviction of the need to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy."

Is this real progress, in a country of 76 million people, three times the size of Iraq's population and larger than the population of France? Wait and see.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday ordered a revision of the country's election laws and said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential elections, a scenario Mubarak hasn't faced since taking power in 1981.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday abruptly called off a planned trip to several Middle Eastern countries that had been scheduled for next week, a decision that came apparently because of the arrest of a leading Egyptian opposition politician last month.

I thought it was my cold affecting my mind, but now I'm feeling better and it hasn't changed -- there is nothing happening out there. If no news is good news, then everything must be pretty darn ducky. I spent an hour reading excellent blogs this morning and found nothing to post. Oh, Rick the Bomber sent me an article about France's unemployment (high) and economic outlook (low) but it wasn't enough to rouse me.

Maybe I'm not feeling as good as I think I am -- anything bad about France is usually enough to get my Now-go-away-before-I-taunt-you-a-second-time juices flowing.

Oh and by the way, I'll be doing a transfer from Road Runner cable modem to Verizon DSL this evening, so if you don't hear from me for a few days don't worry. Or, everything could go right the first time.

Canada cements its Francosphere status by refusing to participate in a ballistic missile defense shield, but offers this doozy:

"We are certainly intending to defend our sovereignty and our air space and if anything develops in our air space, we expect, as a sovereign state, to be notified and have influence on any decisions," [Prime Minister Martin] said. "Canada's a sovereign nation and we would expect and insist on being consulted on any intrusion into our air space."

OK, while the missile heading for Toronto is descending at Mach 99, we'll just keep our finger off the button while Canada tries to decide if defending itself might offend any one else.

Sorry, mes amis, but missiles move too fast for that, as you know perfectly well. Your real game, a perfectly obvious ploy worthy of France, is to let us do all the work, pay all the bills, and take all the heat while you shelter in the shadow of our strength.

And here's how I feel about it. Instead of buying a GM truck that might have a lot of parts from Canada or have been assembled in Canada, I'm going to buy a Japanese truck built in Indiana with 75% American parts. Sorry, GM, but Canada is not our ally; Japan is.

I'm too dang busy. And I wonder why this is any different from keeping fingerprints on file, but for what it's worth, and thanks to Mikey:

According to the Associated Press, Superior Court Judge Jack Sabatino in Trenton, NJ has made the ground-breaking decision that "once a felon has paid his or her debt to society and has fully resumed civilian life, the state's right to maintain that person's DNA sample withers." The ruling was made in response to two convicts , one adult, one juvenile, who challenged the constitutionality of a 2003 law that requires everyone convicted of a crime submit a DNA sample.

While the Pink Pistols believes firmly in the returning of individual rights after the serving of a full sentence, we question the States double standard that allows a decision to destroy a database pertaining to convicted criminals, while insisting on maintaining detailed records on law-abiding citizens who own legal firearms. Over 99% of the firearms owned in the United States are never involved in any criminal act, yet states justify the maintenance of such databases of firearm owners on the supposition that such owners might someday perform bad acts, even though repeated studies show this assumption to be mistaken.

I'm proud to be on the side of, once again, the Pink Pistols, although I favor long guns, myself.

A US marine filmed apparently shooting dead an injured Iraqi in a Falluja mosque last year may not be formally charged, according to media reports.

Military investigators have concluded there is not enough evidence to prosecute over the shooting, US television network CBS news says.

They're not quite finished with the case, officially. Still, it looks to me like the writing is on the wall and the Marine won't be hung out to dry. I'd say the Corps handled this event just about right.

According to the Bank of Estonia, government revenue for 2003 was 48 billion kroons ($4.06 billion). That compares with 42 billion kroons in 2002, and 36 billion kroons in 2001. In other words, revenue has risen steadily.

Next, head south to Slovakia. At the end of last year, the country introduced a flat tax of 19 percent for individuals and companies. The system came into effect at the start of this year.

Slovak Revenue

And how's it working out? Well, this month the government of Slovakia said tax revenue will probably exceed its forecasts for the year by 700 million koruna ($23.6 million). As a result of that, it said the budget deficit would be smaller than originally forecast.

Again, the flat tax seems to be producing higher revenue.

I think we should have a mostly flat 3 tier system. It would have a "Poor Tax" of $100 per person for the poor, a flat rate of about 10% for the "Regular Tax", and a "Rich Tax" of twice that for income above $1 million. That should satisfy the undeniable populist urges of a large portion of our society without jacking anybody up too hard.

To find the perfect tax rate we start at 15% and then lower the rate by 1 point every year until revenues actually decline. Then we go back up a point to the top of the Laffer curve, which we just empirically discovered, and leave it there forever. I suspect the sweet spot will be around 10%, but I don't know anymore than you do -- let's find out.

From day 1, the definition of rich and poor would be indexed. Also from day 1, the entire code will be rewritten from scratch to be comprehensible to dummies like me.

Atlanticist small talk is all that's leftBy Mark Steyn(Filed: 22/02/2005)

"The change for the moment is more in tone than substance," wrote Alec Russell, reporting on President Bush's European outreach in yesterday's Telegraph. You don't say.

My colleague is almost right. In Brussels yesterday, the President's "charm offensive" consisted of saying the same things he always says – on Iraq, Iran, Palestine, the illusion of stability, the benefits of freedom, the need for Egypt and Saudi Arabia to get with the programme, etc. But, tone-wise, the Bush charm offensive did its best to keep the offensiveness reasonably charming – though his references to anti-Semitism and the murder of Theo van Gogh by a Dutch Islamist were a little more pointed than his hosts would have cared for.

But, in the broader sense vis-à-vis Europe, the administration is changing the tone precisely because it understands there can be no substance. And, if there's no substance that can be changed, what's to quarrel about? International relations are like ex-girlfriends: if you're still deluding yourself you can get her back, every encounter will perforce be fraught and turbulent; once you realise that's never gonna happen, you can meet for a quick decaf latte every six – make that 10 – months and do the whole hey-isn't-it-terrific-the-way-we're-able-to-be-such-great-friends routine because you couldn't care less. You can even make a few pleasant noises about her new romance (the so-called European Constitution) secure in the knowledge he's a total loser.

Seen at low tide

HummingbirdFinally, my first hummingbirds. Saw them on a fire bush in Crystal Beach, FL. My rental's neighbor's yard is all xeriscaped, which is ugly to me but just fine with the little hummers. At first, I thought they were the biggest hornets I'd ever seen.

Flamingo!One of these dudes flew right over my house. I couldn't believe it. And please don't tell me it was a roseated spoonbill because it was a frickin' flamingo, dude! Huge and pink and right there above me. I was like so freaking out, you know?

Black SkimmerThese beauties are getting scarce, but one flew by yesterday at low tide on the hunt for minnows.

Dead sea turtlecool, but smelly

Reddish EgretThese have been hanging out around the pool quite a bit lately. Must be a new group of adolesent birds -- the youngsters like to hunt where the water is clear, and it takes them a day to figure out there are not now and never will be fish in the swimming pool no matter how clear the water.

Sand Piper

Brown PelicanI saw a flock of about 200 of these at Disappearing Island yesterday, just south of Anclote Island on the west coast of FL. Good to see such a large flock.

Wood PeckerThey've developed a sudden interest in the orange tree, which just went into bloom.